ANAHEIM, CA – JULY 06: Matt Kemp #27 of the Los Angeles Dodgers hits an RBI single in the fourth inning during the MLB game against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium on July 6, 2018 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

ANAHEIM — We probably should have paid more attention back in January.

Larry Reynolds, the baseball agent, was talking about Matt Kemp, his client. And at the time, when it was generally assumed that the Dodgers had acquired Kemp for the express purpose of finding someone with which to offload his contract, it sounded like, well, an agent talking up his client.

“He wants to play for the Dodgers,” Reynolds said then. “He wants to win a World Series. He’s gone out this offseason and changed his entire look … he’s in top shape, and he basically wants to come out and, whoever he’s with, prove everybody else wrong.”

And: “Right now his mindset is to show up in spring training and let the people know that, ‘Hey, I’m going to be tough to get rid of. But if I do go somewhere else, you’re going to regret it.”

Look at him now.

The Matt Kemp Redemption Tour will hit Washington, D.C., a week from Tuesday. That became official Sunday afternoon when the bulk of the rosters for the 89th All-Star Game were announced. Kemp, Atlanta’s Nick Markakis and Washington’s Bryce Harper were voted into the National League’s starting outfield in fan balloting. Kemp received 2,930,353 votes, fifth highest among the eight NL starters.

(Consider that the two leading NL vote-getters were Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman with 4,039,219 and Markakis with 3,556,469, an indication that the Braves were, um, very good at getting out the vote. It’s hard to tell, but I’m guessing Kemp did not benefit from many votes from Braves fans.)

But this is on merit. After going 1 for 2 with two walks in as the DH in Sunday night’s 4-3 loss to the Angels, Kemp is fourth in the National League in hitting at .319, 10th in RBI with 57, sixth in slugging percentage (.550) and first in batting average with runners in scoring position (.438). He has 15 home runs and 18 doubles, his adjusted OPS+ of 143 going into the game was his highest in six years — or the last time he was in an All-Star Game — and he has resuscitated his reputation as a defensive outfielder thanks in large part to those 40 pounds he shed in the offseason.

This is not, Kemp said, any sort of vindication or “I showed you” moment.

“I don’t look at it that way,” he said. “I told them I wanted to be here. I told them I wanted them to give me a chance to play every day. And I guess that proves I can help this team win any way I can.

“The past is past. Things happen, an injury here and there, stuff like that. But right now I’m an All-Star and I’m happy about it.”

The signs of this were visible in spring training, though most of us were too busy wondering how the Dodgers were going to shed their share of his $21.75 million salary from their payroll.

But Dave Roberts saw them.

“No. 1, the bat speed, the ball coming off the bat, the sound,” the Dodger manager said Sunday. “It looked right. And then you layer that on with good players around him. So you know that the production possibility is there, and then it’s just about getting an opportunity.”

He got that opportunity, has been productive and has stayed healthy. (Which likely has something to do with the weight loss.)

Kemp played 161 games in 2011, when he had 39 homers, 126 RBI, a 172 OPS+ and should have won the National League MVP award. As it was, Ryan Braun outpolled Kemp and was subsequently popped for PED use.

(Inexplicably, a Kemp-for-Braun trade was a hot Twitter rumor at one point this spring, proving that bots do too have a sense of humor.)

Following that near-MVP season Kemp dealt with a shoulder injury in 2012, and a bad ankle resulting from a botched slide in 2013, while the industry-wide perception was that he wasn’t the best influence in the clubhouse. Then he was traded twice in a year and a half, and even though he logged 35 homers and 108 RBI in 2016 between San Diego and Atlanta, he was tagged as excess baggage.

A year ago he had 19 homers and 64 RBI in 115 games and led the league only in grounding into double plays. Worse, he’d turned 33, in an era in which front offices truly were reluctant to trust anybody over 30.

“It wasn’t a good atmosphere for him,” said his buddy and fellow All-Star, Kenley Jansen.

Roberts was right when he said before the game that he didn’t think Kemp would show how meaningful this really is to him.

“I definitely think that there’s a moment away from here where he looks back and appreciates his … I don’t know if reascenscion is a word, but just being back essentially to being an All-Star caliber player, and also to get recognized by the most important people, the fans,” Roberts said.

Jim Alexander is an Inland Empire native who started with his hometown newspaper, The Press-Enterprise, longer ago than he cares to admit. He's been a sports columnist off and on since 1992, and a full-time columnist since 2010. Yes, he's opinionated, but no, that's not the only club in his bag. He's covered every major league and major sports beat in Southern California over the years, so not much surprises him any more. (And he and Justin Turner have this in common: Both attended Cal State Fullerton. Jim has no plans to replicate Turner's beard.)